| In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the design of structures subjected to high intensity, short duration, dynamic loads, which could result from various sources such as impact and explosions. Structural response of reinforced concrete elements under such loads involves many analytical difficulties, in particular, when nonlinear material models and boundary conditions are involved. Some studies have implemented analytical or numerical models for such analysis under the effects of uniformly distributed impulsive loads. However, uniform loading conditions represent only a small part of the possible loading spectrum. This study is aimed at enhancing the current available tools by including localized loading effects, and combinations of distributed and localized loads.;The analytical approach utilizes a Timoshenko Beam theory for the analysis of reinforced concrete beams and one-way slabs in the dynamic domain. Nonlinear material models are used to derive the resistance of the element in flexure and shear. In addition, a new failure criterion of reinforced concrete elements is formulated. To obtain the response of the element, the differential equations of the Timoshenko Beam theory are solved numerically by applying the finite difference technique. The validity of the approach is verified with known solutions in the elastic domain, and with experimental data available in the literature for the nonlinear response. In addition, the analytical solution correctly predicts the failure modes and damage level as observed in the experiments. |
